Lending woes hurt makers of manufactured houses: Liberty Homes sees sales fall about $20 million; Goshen-based firm expanding into the modular market. (Indiana 100)

Indianapolis Business Journal, May, 2003 by Jolene Ketzenberger

The well-known problems at Conseco Inc. continue to have a ripple effect on businesses once associated with the troubled company. Factory-built home manufacturers, such as Liberty Homes Inc., based in Goshen in northern Indiana, have been particularly affected.

When Conseco's financing division stopped making loans, the factory-built home industry, once a mainstay for the lender, found itself with fewer financing options for potential buyers. That pushed the factory-built industry's traditional buyer, the sub-prime borrower, to the site-built market. Lured by no-down-payment programs, these borrowers have bypassed factory-built homes for conventional construction.

And interest rates have typically been 3-percent to 4-percent higher for factory-built homes...